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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (102480)	1/30/2009 11:33:29 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542501

I suspect we're not going to agree on the worth of reading Krugman's columns, Steve. I see a brilliant economist with ideas that have political upsides; you see, I gather, a crank. I gather we'll just disagree there. As for healthcare, I see two different but linked issues. There is an immediate health care crisis caused by the economic downturn and certain to get worse. It overlays the already "broken" system as you called it. I would like to see the Obama administration use their political capital to take care of both quickly. But the first is more pressing than the second. Unemployed folk may well get unemployment benefits (until they run out and then what happens) but they don't get health insurance. Extending COBRA is not even band aid type stuff if folk cannot afford insurance payments. So, I see that as a very big worry. Sooner rather than later. The fix for the "broken" system shouldn't take too much prep time. After all, it's been debated and redebated and redebated since Truman tried to get universal health care in 1948. It's not as if the options are unknown. And Daschle has dealt with it up close and personal. Let's get it done.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (102480)	1/30/2009 11:38:22 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542501

Steve, I should add something about the costs to that previous post. It got away from me too quickly. I think I understand your concern about increasing debt and long term debt burdens. However, best I can tell, if we don't fix this recession/depression that will get worse. Tax revenues decline even further, debt increases, etc. So a good fix will actually, we hope, create less debt than a Hooverish "just let it run its course." The second is that a good fix may actually reduce the projected debt by generating new tax revenues. Much of the proposed infrastructure work is likely to do so. I'm not arguing we will not be increasing the debt; just arguing that it's not the first priority right now. And much of the talk about it is more draconian than needs to be.